Tag Archives: Food

Some trivial facts in Winchester

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Last week, Jane Austen fans celebrated 200 years of Pride and Prejudice.

Jane Austen was buried in Winchester Cathedral. I visited Winchester regularly. When I visited Winchester again with my son yesterday, I made a point to find a trivial fact about Mr Darcy.

Come dine with Mr Darcy

Come dine with Mr Darcy

Opposite to the library in Jewry Street is a Thai restaurant named Bangkok Brasserie. This restaurant serves a unique dish called Colin Firth’s Thai Mango Chicken for £7.95.

“Yellow curry with added mango; created for actor Colin Firth. 75p to Southampton and Winchester Visitors Group, a charity supporting refugees and asylum seekers.”

On this occasion, we didn’t eat in this restaurant and I only entered the restaurant to pick up the menu, as my 12-year-old-boy found KFC a more superior alternative, and he couldn’t possibly appreciate Colin Firth as passionately as his mother does. However, when I last tried Colin Firth on my birthday — I mean Colin Firth’s Thai Mango Chicken – it was absolutely delicious.

I remembered a waiter in the restaurant told me that Colin Firth’s parents dined there frequently, and Thai Mango Chicken was their favourite. They asked for the permission from the parents to name the dish to honour Colin Firth. Daily Echo has more details.

We headed down the high street, and I saw a remembrance flower bed for horses.

I stopped to take some pictures, to my son’s annoyance. I explained that as there’s been news about horse meat in burger recently in the UK, this picture about horses could be interesting to my readers.

These were not ordinary horses.

These were the horses (hundreds of thousands of them) killed in the South African War from 1899 to 1902.

Horses

Horses

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The day we battled strong wind

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In June, I wrote about Closeness with Cakes regarding our first fund-raising event for a children oncology ward, Piam Brown Ward.

To be honest, fund-raising in a school fayre demanded hard work and the preparation consumed a lot of my time. It was hard keeping sane as the wind constantly tried to turn the cakes into dancing cakes.

However, it was important to contribute to the ward which once saved Ben’s life.  Ben’s now more aware of his medical history and is just mature enough to support the ward, in which he received supreme medical care, with the most dedicated and highly specialised team.

I later received this warm thank-you letter from Jane Buchanan, the charity fund manager.

“We value your support more than you’ll ever know.”

The letter ended with this paragraph:

“As always, everyone joins me in sending much love and our most sincere thanks. We value your support more than you will ever know.”

This personal, touching letter made the effort of taming the dancing cakes more worthwhile. Having straggly wind-tossed hair for a day was actually quite alright.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Close — Closeness with Cakes

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Close

You may wonder how these yummy cakes have to do with ‘Close’?

These cakes spoke a thousand words.

That’s closeness of human hearts. 

Please read on.

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A Mix of East and West Fitting for a Queen

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We celebrated the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee yesterday with  a mix of oriental and western food.

My friend Annie prepared a feast, fitting for a queen.

Oriental: We had rice, steamed sea bass, steamed vegetable and grilled Chinese BBQ pork

Western: We had roast chicken, roast potatoes and roast duck

The duck was actually from France. Annie’s daughter came back from France with a school trip, and her host family gave her some duck to (smuggle)  take home to England. It was delicious.

One highlight of the meal was Chiu Chow Chilli, by King Asia. Annie’s brother is in the food industry, and he brought us this delicious chilli sauce that his company has just launched in the north of England.

Chiu Chow Chilli — it’s hot and rich

I love proper chilli sauce. I grew up eating chilli for most of my meals. Chiu Chow Chilli is rich, hot with a touch of sweetness. It’s the most delicious chilli I’ve ever tried in England.

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5 changes of a Chinese wife in England: on Language

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English is such a fascinating language. It’s common that people do not always say what they mean, or do not mean what they say. Below is a list of 5 things that I’ve learnt:

1) A Cream Tea is not a cup of tea with cream:

On our honeymoon in Jersey back in 1999, my husband asked if I fancied some Cream Tea. I said yes as I was thirsty after a long walk.

He later gave me a plate with a fat, boring looking bun (I later learnt it was called a scone) with jam and cream next to it. I sat and waited patiently for my tea. “Where’s my tea?”  I asked. Hugh pointed at the fat, boring looking bun and said ‘You said you wanted some Cream Tea.’

Cream Tea means a scone.

2) There’s something called a Tea Towel: 

A Tea Towel is a piece of cloth you use to dry dishes and cutlery. Why is it called a Tea Towel? I’m wondering if ‘tea’ means a drink or a meal?

I’ve also learnt that the tea towel is a minor British Institution.

3) What is lunch, tea and dinner really?  Continue reading →

5 changes of a Chinese wife in England — on Food

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I’ve been living in England since 1996. From being a student, a wife, to a mother, I’ve noticed my habits have changed quite a bit. Here is a list of my 5 changes regarding food:

1) I no longer own a rice cooker:

The 2 British people in my life prefer pasta to rice. When my rice cooker broke a few years ago, I didn’t replace it, because I couldn’t find a good one even from John Lewis. I must be the only Chinese person under the sun without an electrical rice cooker. Now, whenever I need to cook rice, I use a saucepan and control the heat manually.

2) I enjoy drinking tea with cow’s milk:

When I first arrived in England, cow’s milk in tea would irritate my body. I felt sick. I had tummy ache. After a while, my body slowly adapted to cow’s milk, and I’ve become a tea addict now and I drink tea with cow’s milk day and night. I also need a tea break very often.

3) I use fork to eat rice on a plate:

As we don’t eat rice a lot at home, when we have  rice, such as with Chilli Con Carne, we use fork to eat rice on a plate. In my previous life, rice was eaten from a bowl with chopsticks. Continue reading →